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Strength
Strength (Str) is an attribute score for player characters. Its relevance in battle means that it is assigned to most enemies, as well. The attributes are: *Endurance *Strength *Agility *Perception *Intelligence *Charisma Overview When a hit is scored in combat, a certain percentage of the damage dealt to the victim's End is dealt to its Str. Fractional values are always rounded down in the below cases: *Non-penetrating hit: Str damage = 0% to 20% of End dmg *Penetration-matches-thickness, parity hit: Str damage = 20% to 50% of End dmg *Penetrating hit: Str damage = 50% to 90% of End dmg In effect, non-penetrating hits will rarely affect Str, but penetrating hits can mean serious trouble. Strength is the core health statistic; if a character's Str falls to 0 during combat, the character is killed. Beware— there is no way to resurrect dead party members in Darklands. End + Str also determines a character's encumbrance limit, which in turn determines how effectively the character can fight while armored. Fighting under a "Heavy Load" or while "Overloaded" carries major attack speed penalties. Weapons each have an inherent, "standard" Str range. Below this range, penalties apply to the damage inflicted with that weapon, and above the range, bonuses are awarded. The bonuses can be very useful; they ignore any failure to penetrate armor and can directly offset/magnify differences in quality between the character's weapon and the target's armor. Healing Str cannot be healed without some form of medical care. *Relaxing at an inn or while camping-out restores 1 Str. *Resting overnight under "Regain Strength" orders uses the highest Heal skill among the party members to restore Str day-by-day. *Physicians in-town can heal the party at much greater speed (and expense) depending on their own skill. *Some Saints (next section) restore Str, while other Saints and the Ironarm potion merely boost it temporarily. *The Essence o'Grace potion restores a large percentage of lost Str and is far-and-away the best form of instantaneous battlefield healing. Increasing Strength Like other attributes, this stat does not usually change. There is, however, an opportunity during the Wild Hunt to permanently increase Str by 4 on a selected character, twice. A couple of rare magical curses and traps (all cutscene-driven and avoidable with skills and caution) can permanently wound characters. The end of the main quest is an unavoidable exception to this, but even here, the party can possibly negate their strength losses with certain hard choices and divine aid. Recommendations Str and End scores should be high on all characters, exceeding those of the Quick Start party. Optimally, the two stats should be about equal. Low Str puts a character at risk of getting killed by especially-powerful opponents. As with End, Str is crucial in battle and in dungeon-crawling, but is seldom called-upon in cutscene situations. Saints :*''' ''The data for '''Paul the Apostle and Paul the Simple are switched in-game, giving them pretty-much the opposite effects from what one might expect from the Manual, Cluebook, in-game descriptions, and indeed the names of the saints themselves.'' :** ''St. Giles of Portugal has been documented to wound the target character, reducing his strength by 1 permanently. As far as can be ascertained, this is not the case. The saint deals 1 point of combat damage to the target's Str and 1 point of "permanent" damage to Virt. But Virt can, of course, be gained-back.'' Strength Ranges on Weaponry Character Creation Background professions that raise Str: *Recruit *Veteran *Peasant *Knight *Hermit *Laborer Background professions that reduce Str: *Hunter *Courtier *Manorial Lord *Priest *Abbot *Bishop *Clerk *Physician *Professor *Alchemist *Master Alchemist *Local Trader *Merchant-Proprieter *Journeyman Craftsman *Swindler Strength is very sensitive to the ill effects of aging during character creation. Encumbrance and Weight Category:Attributes